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Trump Administration Rollbacks on Healthy School Meals Harm the Health of Millions of Children

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Each day, approximately thirty million children in the U.S. eat meals at school. Thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and the resulting school nutrition standards, schools were required to provide children with healthier school meals, snacks, and beverages. These improvements were an amazing success story. The Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health concluded that the school meal requirements resulting from the Heathy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was “one of the most important national obesity prevention policy achievements in recent decades.” They estimated that these improvements would prevent more than two million cases of childhood obesity and save up to $792 million in health-care related costs over ten years.

Despite this tremendous progress, the Trump Administration has now reversed course and weakened school nutrition standards. If allowed to stand, the Administration’s actions would ensure that school meals will never be based on established nutrition science, as Congress has required.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a rule significantly weakening school nutrition standards by locking in levels of salt in school meals that are higher than those recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and allowing schools to serve fewer whole grains and more refined grains. Improved school nutrition is critical: one out of three children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years is overweight or obese. Children consume one-third to one-half of their daily calories during the school day. Unfortunately, nine out of ten children consume too much sodium, increasing their risk of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke.

The Trump Administration’s changes to school meal nutrition standards put children’s health at risk—resulting in children consuming, on average, an extra six cups of salt over the seven-year delay. The weakened school nutrition standards also do not align with nutrition science and are counter to sound public health policy.

So, we are taking the Administration to court to ensure that all children who rely on school meals benefit from healthy meals based on sound dietary advice. Our lawsuit argues that the rollbacks are legally flawed for several reasons, including:

In weakening school nutrition standards, the Department violated federal law that requires school nutrition standards to be based on and consistent with nutrition science, as set forth in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Report issued by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences;

The Department failed to provide a reasoned explanation for weakening the school nutrition standards; and

The Department failed to respond adequately to the vast majority of comments which opposed rolling back the nutrition standards for sodium (96% of comments) and whole grain (97% of comments), and which proposed alternate approaches that would have protected child health while addressing potential operational concerns.

Relevant Background

USDA’s final ruleis deeply flawed and illegal because it does not ensure that school meals are consistent with sound dietary advice. The rule:

delayed the next phase of sodium reduction (Target 2) by 7 years (from School Year 2017-2018 to School Year 2024-2025) and eliminated altogether the final sodium reduction goal (Target 3); and

The school meal changes are unnecessary and endanger progress on improving child health:

Virtually all schools (99 percent) participating in the National School Lunch Program were making progress toward serving healthier meals with less sodium; more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; and no trans fat.

The seven-year delay of the second set of sodium reduction targets and elimination of Target 3 will lock in unsafe levels of sodium for children.

Many schools, food service companies, and others in industry are working toward or already providing healthy and appealing meals and products with less sodium. USDA should address remaining challenges through training and technical assistance.

Weakening the whole-grains standard was unnecessary and harmful for child health:

Children, on average, consume too few whole grains and too many refined grains.

Eating more whole grains is associated with reduced risk of heart disease and provides more nutrients. Whole grains are also a healthful source of fiber.

USDA has conceded that 85 percent of schools were meeting the previous targets without requesting whole-grain waivers and are providing children with appealing 100 percent whole-grain options.

More schools, food service companies, and others in industry have reformulated existing products and developed new products to meet the whole grain standards. USDA should address remaining challenges through training and technical assistance.

There is overwhelming public and parental support for healthy school meals:

Counter to claims, consumption of healthy school foods has increased; plate waste has remained the same or decreased:

In issuing the recent rollbacks, the Administration cited concerns over students not eating school meals and throwing them away. Yet, at the time of the rollback, students were eating more healthy food and studies showed that food waste had either remained the same or decreased since the HHFKA school nutrition standards were adopted.

Food waste can be a problem in schools; however, this problem existed long before the updated nutrition standards were put into place. There are a number of strategies to reduce food waste in schools, such as taste testing menu items; giving students more time to eat; scheduling recess before lunch; adjusting the time of the lunch period; and involving students in meal planning.

Participation in the school lunch program is increasing:

Contrary to claims by USDA, changes in participation in the school lunch program were not the result of changes to the nutrition standards. In fact, data shows that participation was increasing at the time of the rollback.

The Community Eligibility Program helps decrease stigma by providing a free meal for all students in an eligible school, so low-income kids are not singled out.

History of the updated school nutrition standards

CSPI developed a case study, published in Nutrition Today, that provides insights into policy strategy and advocacy best practices that resulted in passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA): https://cspinet.org/schoolfoodcasestudy.